Need I say more?
You probably do need to say more.
What specifically are you objecting to here? That a tiny fraction of fat people are saying that they don’t feel the need to fit a culturally-defined body image? That they’re having a convention? That they disagree with the choice some fat people make to have surgery?
Now, for a real critique of NAAFA read Dan Savage’s gluttony chapter in his book Skipping Toward Gomorrah. He talks to people who are inside the organization but have issues with some of the positions the organization takes.
The above article has the best quote ever:
The sight of people in denial is never pretty.
“Medicine says being obese is bad for you? I deny it! There, problem solved.”
What’s the problem? Since they obviously have been quite unable to lose weight isn’t it better that they at least don’t feel bad about it? Their weight isn’t hurting anybody but themselves and I for sure wouldn’t want to deal with all the shit very fat people have to on a daily basis. Why not let them try to be fabulous with what they have when they can’t have it any other way? Also isn’t it so that it’s not actually the fat so much as the inaction that fat lifestyle often entail that kills you? Being slim is no guarantee on health.
C’mon Otto, if these people really felt they didn’t need to fit a culturally-defined body image, they wouldn’t be bitching in the first place. Being social creatures, we all like to fit in and being anti-diet is absurd. On top of this, some of these people want to spread ignorance suggesting that obesity *isn’t[/i to bame for pre-mature deaths.
Discrimination? What discrimination?
Yeah. okay.
Let me walk through this here.
Opposing discrimination? Great.
Not wanting to fit into society’s standards, which are often arbitrary and unrealistic? Fine.
These people? Fucking stupid. When you start spouting off crap about witch-hunts, you sound like a whiny fool. But where it gets really pit-worthy, in my opinion, is when you start with the crap about “being way overweight isn’t unhealthy,” “I dieted wrong so diets are bad,” and the ultimate gist of the article, “I’m fat and it’s everybody’s problem but mine.”
Here is a good answer to that:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/Living/obesity_society040601-1.html
I wouldn’t go so far as to spout off about how being fat really isn’t unhealthy, because there are plenty of cites that indicate that there are health problems associated with it.
But other than that, if these people are sick of being treated like crap (and I believe that fat people are treated like crap), then more power to them for organizing and telling everyone else to shut up and stop being such assholes about it.
I would roll my eyes if a group of smokers organized and tried to claim that smoking isn’t really unhealthy, but if they organized (which I believe some have) just to say, “Leave us alone as long as we aren’t smoking where we’re not supposed to” then I’m all behind that. I have no desire to treat smokers like shit. And they do get a lot of unwarranted shit directed at them.
As a fat person, I would just like to say: What in the sweet name of fuck are these people smoking? Fat is fabulous?!?!! Well I guess I can stop exercising like I’m prepping for the Special Forces Elite Ninja Brigade and eating just enough to keep myself from passing out in hunger pains, all to maintain myself at a meager state of “utter lardass.” Look, everyone ain’t going to be one of the pretty people. That’s why the rest of us need to rise up, kill the pretty people, and eat their brains to gain their power.
You want to feel attractive, go pimp yourself out on an internet fetish site, you’re bound to find someone who’s into that sort of thing, no matter what your abnormality happens to be. But don’t expect most people to buy into it.
As another fat person, I concur. I got over the “body image” bullshit a while ago, but to be in denial about the health consequences of obesity is unforgivably absurd.
Sorry, I meant to add one more sentence to my post: the reason this is so repugnant is that it’s intentionally spreading ignorance.
Huh?
Seriously, I may be a little slow today but I’ve read this sentence five times and I’m completely missing how you draw the conclusion.
I’m anti-diet. I don’t think they work well in general based on my own personal experience and the experiences of family members along with anecdotal evidence and the occasional story I see about boomerang dieters.
Perhaps what I should say is that I don’t think diets as most people do them work. I lost 100 pounds and I wasn’t on a particular diet. I exercised every day and ate what I wanted to for the most part, just less of it and choosing lower calorie versions if available. I also removed cheese from my food choices which I think contributed but that was not a “diet” choice; it was an ethical vegetarian one.
Of course that’s wrong and that aspect should be challenged, but the overall message of the group, which is that fat people are deserving of the same levels of dignity and respect as non-fat people, is a good one. NAAFA, like some other advocacy groups, has distorted that message. If they pulled back from that particular brink they’d have a lot more resonance. It would probably also help if the media, when it deigned to notice NAAFA, didn’t invariably portray it as a gatherng of fat-ass lunatics.
I take it you’ve never been fat?
I am all for “not all that don’t look like Britney will be made feel like shit”. And that include people who are too big, who are too thin, who are too tall, or too short, or not white and blond, or dissabled, or…" Just so you know. I am constantly pissed by the media (especially in advertising) refusal to portray people like they really are.
But Otto, they want “to lobby for legislation to fight discrimination against fat people”. Wouldn’t that make obese people a protected class?* Are you ready to do that?
*That was a real question, I won’t pretend I know what they mean by it.
When I read that statement, it seemed like an intelligent insight to me. People who are happy with how they look don’t spend all their time worried about what other people think about how they look. A lot of fat, or conventionally not attractive, people are comfortable with how they look, and they aren’t the ones who sit around whining about conventional standards of beauty. These people are saying that the culturally defined body image should change to fit them, not that it isn’t important.
Has the OP been back to say who or what he’s Pitting, and why?
Hard to agree or disagree without knowing what with.
Well, perhaps it’s the being treated like shit aspect that is making them worried about how other people think. Perhaps they just want other people to stop treating them like shit.
I think the assertion is this: if they didn’t care, they wouldn’t be complaining in the first place.
Or: they’re complaining because they do indeed feel the pressure to lose weight; they would not be complaining if they did not feel the pressure.
Beautiful! And congratulations.
I think there are a few groups, this one included, that would be better off fighting battles and not wars; it makes more sense to me to fight it at the micro, rather than macro, level, as obesity is often seen as a problem that is chosen. That isn’t true in many cases, but that doesn’t matter.
Not me. 
I went through a period where my dad was constantly grilling cuts of steak marinated and seasoned in every which way. After about a month of this, I really appreciated the flavor of a simple salt-and-pepper seasoning. Or even just the plain taste of the meat.
The point is this: all this imagery gets grating, and when I see my girlfriend in her naturalness, with all her little flaws, I’m actually more attracted to her.
I hope I’m not the only one like this.
When’s the last time anybody has seen a really fat 90 year old?